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Scripture Reading: James 1:1
III. The genuine Christian perfection revealed in the entire divine revelation of the New Testament:
А. The factors of which the genuine Christian perfection (Christian living) is brought forth:
1. The processed and consummated Triune God — Matt. 28:19; John 14:8-11, 16-20; 2 Cor. 13:14.
2. The all-inclusive Christ — Eph. 1:23; 4:10.
3. The consummated, compounded, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold Spirit of Jesus Christ (Exo. 30:23-25; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:11; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; Phil. 1:19), who was not yet before the resurrection of Christ (John 7:38-39).
4. The divine life — 1:4; 10:10b; 3:15; 14:6; Col. 3:4; Rom. 5:17, 21.
5. The divine nature — 2 Pet. 1:4.
6. The hand of love of God the Father and the hand of grace of God the Son — John 10:28-29.
7. The unlimited fullness of the Father — Col. 1:19.
8. The unsearchable riches of Christ — Eph. 3:8.
9. The bountiful supply of the Spirit — Phil. 1:19.
10. The abounding and sufficient grace — Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10.
B. The means by which the genuine Christian perfection (Christian living) is carried out:
1. The vision of God’s eternal economy — Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4b.
2. The organic Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God — Eph. 1:23; 4:4-6, 12, 16.
3. The power of Christ’s resurrection — Phil. 3:10.
4. The cross of Christ — Gal. 6:14-15; 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 2:20; 3:1.
5. The union and mingling of the believers with the Triune God — Matt. 28:19; Eph. 4:4-6.
6. The joining of the believers to the Lord as one spirit — 1 Cor. 6:17.
7. The regenerated spirit of the believers — Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22.
8. The discernment of the believers’ spirit from their soul — 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12.
9. The denial of the believers’ self (soul) through the cross of Christ (Matt. 16:24-25) leaving no ground for self-cultivation.
Note: The factors of which and the means by which the genuine Christian perfection is brought forth and carried out are much more, much greater, higher, richer, stronger, more divine, more spiritual, more heavenly, more organic, more productive, more excellent, more profound, more unfathomable, and more for the union and mingling of the believers with the Triune God than the factors and means for the producing and carrying out of the Christian perfection stressed by James.
Note: There is no comparison between the functions of the Christian perfection stressed by James and those of the genuine Christian perfection. The Christian perfection stressed by James is far off.
We have seen the virtues of Christian perfection stressed by James. In this chapter we want to see the genuine Christian perfection revealed in the entire divine revelation of the New Testament. There is a vast difference between these two kinds of perfection. The same subject of mathematics may be taught to both elementary-school students and college graduate students. Although the subject is the same, the lessons are vastly different. We have seen the elementary school of Christian perfection in James. Now we come to the graduate school of Christian perfection in the entire New Testament.
The New Testament is of twenty-seven books. James is only one of the twenty-seven and is only five chapters long. As a short single book, James cannot compare with the entire New Testament. The perfection stressed by James is according to James’s view. But the genuine Christian perfection is according to the entire New Testament.
Now we want to see the factors that bring forth, or produce, the genuine Christian perfection. The first factor is the processed and consummated Triune God (Matt. 28:19; John 14:8-11, 16-20; 2 Cor. 13:14). The Triune God passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, the all-terminating death, the germinating resurrection, and the transcending ascension. Many in Christianity teach that God never changes. I believe that God never changes in His attributes. He never changes in His love, in His holiness, etc., but He did have a big change in His person. He was God becoming a man. What a big change! He was God conceived in the womb of a virgin for nine months and born out of her to be a man, and that man was called Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). Isaiah 9:6 reveals that the little child Jesus in the manger was the mighty God, the eternal Father. If you say that God never changes, you either do not know or do not believe the Bible. The Bible says that God changed, but in His Godhead He never changed. The Triune God was processed and consummated as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The processed and consummated Triune God is the first factor for our Christian perfection.
The second factor is the all-inclusive Christ (Eph. 1:23; 4:10). The all-inclusive Christ is a term invented by us. I started my ministry in the United States in December 1962, and the first set of messages that I gave was on the all-inclusive Christ. That book on the all-inclusive Christ is based upon only three verses in Deuteronomy (8:7-9). Since that time I have spoken concerning the all-inclusive Christ in thousands of messages.
The third factor of the genuine Christian perfection is the consummated, compounded, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold Spirit of Jesus Christ (Exo. 30:23-25; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:11; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; Phil. 1:19). Such a Spirit was not yet before the resurrection of Christ (John 7:38-39).
Another factor that produces the genuine Christian living is the divine life (1:4; 10:10b; 3:15; 14:6; Col. 3:4; Rom. 5:17, 21).
Second Peter 1:4 says that we have become partakers of the divine nature, which is the divine element.
John 10:28 and 29 speak of God the Father’s hand of love plus the Son’s hand of grace. These are factors of Christian perfection. No one, including Satan, can snatch us away from these two hands.
The Father’s fullness is unlimited (Col. 1:19). The fullness means the overflow of the riches. When a cup is filled with water to overflowing, that overflow is the fullness. John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”
The unsearchable riches of the all-inclusive Christ also bring forth the genuine Christian living (Eph. 3:8).
The bountiful, the sufficient, the complete supply of the Spirit is spoken of in Philippians 1:19.
The tenth factor is the abounding and sufficient grace (Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10).
We can see from the above ten factors that James’s teaching concerning Christian perfection is on the kindergarten level, whereas the entire New Testament teaching concerning the genuine Christian perfection is on the top graduate school level.
The factors are to produce, to bring forth. They are the source. The means are the carrying out of the genuine Christian perfection.
The first means is the vision of God’s eternal economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4b). Many Christians cannot have the genuine Christian living because they have never seen God’s eternal economy. Economy is an anglicized word from the Greek word oikonomia.
The organic Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God (Eph. 1:23; 4:4-6, 12, 16). The organic Body of Christ is a great means of Christian perfection. If you do not know the church as the Body of Christ, how can you be perfected? Today there is no possibility for those in Christianity to know the genuine, proper Christian perfection in the New Testament, because they have not seen these things.
Paul speaks of his desire to know the power of Christ’s resurrection in Philippians 3:10. Resurrection is God Himself. The Lord said that He is the resurrection (John 11:25a). The power of resurrection is the power of the almighty, omnipotent God.
The cross of Christ is another means of carrying out the genuine Christian living (Gal. 6:14-15; 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 2:20; 3:1). The real significance of the cross of Christ is His all-terminating plus life-releasing death. He terminated all the negative things in the whole universe. He also released the divine life from within Him.
The union and mingling of the believers with the Triune God is the fifth means of the genuine Christian perfection (Matt. 28:19; Eph. 4:4-6).
First Corinthians 6:17 says that we are joined to the Lord as one spirit. This joining of the believers to the Lord is another means of our Christian perfection.
Another means of Christian perfection is the regenerated spirit of the believers (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). James never says a word concerning our spirit. When I began to minister in the United States, many people told me that they had never heard before that they had a human spirit. Three particular verses in the New Testament show the divine Spirit and the human spirit. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. John 3:6 says that what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Finally, John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.
Some argue that the spirit is the same as the soul. Hebrews 4:12, however, speaks of the division of the spirit from the soul. First Thessalonians 5:23 says clearly that man is composed of three parts: body and soul and spirit. If you do not know the difference between your spirit and your soul, how can you be spiritual? How can you experience Christ as life? If you do not know your human spirit, you can never know the spiritual things.
James’s perfection is somewhat of self-cultivation. He speaks of bridling the tongue (3:1-12). To exercise to bridle your tongue is a kind of self-cultivation. He also teaches that man’s wrath does not work out God’s righteousness (1:20). To resist your temper is also the cultivation of self. The Lord Jesus in the New Testament taught that to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves and bear the cross (Matt. 16:24-25). To follow the Lord you must have your self crossed out. The Christian life is not a life of self-cultivation but of self-denial. Self-denial leaves no ground for self-cultivation. This is quite different from James’s teaching.
The factors of which and the means by which the genuine Christian perfection is brought forth and carried out are much more, much greater, higher, richer, stronger, more divine, more spiritual, more heavenly, more organic, more productive, more excellent, more profound, more unfathomable, and more for the union and mingling of the believers with the Triune God than the factors and means for the producing and carrying out of the Christian perfection stressed by James.
Now we want to see the functions of the genuine Christian perfection, or living. The first function is making oneself perfect and maturing oneself in life to live Christ and magnify Christ as the preeminent One, who is revealed in him, who lives in him, who is formed in him, and who is making His home in his heart (1 Thes. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:2; Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:15; Phil. 1:20-21; Col. 1:18; Gal. 1:16; 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17). Our perfection is for living Christ and magnifying Christ. He is revealed in us, lives in us, is formed in us, and is building His home within us day by day.
The genuine Christian perfection also functions to perfect the members of Christ (4:12).
Making the church the fullness of both God and Christ as Their expression is another function of the genuine Christian perfection (1:23; 3:19).
The genuine Christian perfection builds up the Body of Christ (4:12, 16).
Our Christian perfection is now working to consummate the New Jerusalem as the eternal enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God (Rev. 21:1-21). We Christians today are building the New Jerusalem. We are consummating the New Jerusalem.
Strictly speaking, the new creation of God does not include the new heaven and the new earth. Only the New Jerusalem will be the new creation. It is the old creation rebuilt with the element of God. The new heaven and new earth are not produced in this way. They have no element of God. The difference between the new creation and the old creation is God’s element. Through regeneration God’s element has been constituted into His redeemed to make them the new creation.
The new heaven and new earth are called new, but they are not the new creation. The New Jerusalem is also called new, yet it is new with God’s element. The new creation is composed only of God’s redeemed, who are reconstituted, remade, with God Himself as the element. Second Corinthians 5:17 says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. Galatians 6:15 says, “Neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.” We are God’s new creation, and the aggregate, the totality, of all of God’s redeemed people as the new creation is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the Triune God mingled with His redeemed people.
The consummating work of the New Jerusalem as His new creation started in Genesis. All of God’s redeemed, probably from Adam, the latest from Abel, have been participating in the consummation of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is built by God with Himself and all His redeemed. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham was expecting to enter into that city, the city designed and built by God (vv. 8-10). God builds the New Jerusalem within the four ages of the old creation: the age before the law, the age of law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom. Out of the old creation God builds the new creation with Himself plus all His redeemed.
We can see from this fellowship that there is no comparison between the functions of the Christian perfection stressed by James and those of the genuine Christian perfection. The Christian perfection stressed by James is far off.
According to all the marvelous items of the factors, the means, and the functions, as seen above, the Christian perfection (Christian living) should be the issue of the processed and consummated Triune God working Himself, in the all-inclusive Christ as the compounded Spirit, into His redeemed as their life and everything for the expression of Him. This excellent issue is nothing less than the glorious manifestation of the union of the processed divinity with the transformed humanity and the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man. This far, far transcends the human cultivation of one’s self in developing his “bright virtue,” which is merely the creation by God in man and not the God of glory wrought into man as the divine element for His mingling with man, making man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
